Turning Savage

My Senior Management Team meetings are often a low-point in the week. Held at varying times on a Wednesday on the Secondary school campus they are long, boring rambling affairs, often based on my Boss’s mind-map agenda. For real!!!

All my meetings in Primary PMT, Whole Staff and Sections have a bullet point agenda and sent out at least 16 hours before the start of the meeting. The meetings are minuted, actions noted, filed hard and soft copies and i even send them across to my Boss for her information. Each meeting begins with outstanding actions - it's easier to see who is slacking off the pace.

There is clearly a realisation by The Boss that this would be a good initiative for SMT and Mr T (Head of pre-University division) is happy to take the minutes. Both he and Mr N are new to upper-management and their schoolboy errors are ass-squirming. Whilst Mr N learns quickly, Mr T certainly doesn’t. And despite the abuse hurled at him from many corners of the room, he still doesn’t learn. At least by taking the minutes, (which he does pretty poorly), it keeps him quieter.

Things are now better – even more so that The Boss has been off for the last three weeks. Mr N. and Mr T. are slack in getting the agenda items in, making AOB a joke. Mr A (HR + Admin. Overseer) and Dr No never bring anything to the table. So i opt for monopolisation. Self elected chair – fair play considering i’m the only one submitting agenda items – i go at pace and heaven help anyone that can’t keep up. Most is just a release of the list of incompetencies that i deal with daily, and Admin squirm bottoms into chairs. I have learnt my stuff and there is nowhere for them to hide. Mr N chips in with “turn” and it’s clear where the problem lies. The list of Actions to be taken all read Mr A and Dr No (Finance) and every week they just cover with BS over and over again.  

Deadlines dissolve away, but now Mr N and i become increasingly frustrated. Hell! We’re still waiting for our budgets one month into the school term, and even local orders will take a minimum of two months even to begin manufacturing!

However, today victory will be mine.

Today i am now armed with photocopies of completed requisition orders, some dating from the summer – soap, pencils, and mattresses for nap-time and labelled urgent – all have gone unheeded or simply vanished. I’m prepared to buy the stuff myself tomorrow and pick it all up from the Hood, but they won’t even release me my floating budget! 

But of course it’s not to be. With nowhere in the room to hide, Dr No is a complete no show – he had to renew his driving license apparently! 

There is actually no point in even trying to meet as all my agenda items pertain to him. The three Heads (Primary, Secondary and Pre-Tertiary) have all completed their outstanding actions – leaving a squirming and slippery Mr A. all on his own and out on a limb. Mr T feels it and tries to pacify the situation, but Mr N and Mountain Man have turned savage. 

Mr. A - smarmy bullshitter extraordinaire who informs us all he is "unsackable"

At least a 30 minute rabid frenzied attack eventually completed, Mr N asks Mr A to leave the room. Mr N has had enough, and the Head devise a plan of action. With SMT proving ineffectual and with no Boss around for at least another week or so, we fool-hardily opt to go right to the top.

I call Ato S. School Founder and now General Manager and major share-holder, and a meeting is scheduled for Monday afternoon. Our Boss is going to be horrified if, but more likely, when, she finds out, and we could all be out before the end of our probationary period. In our prelim contract it states three months, but local law within 45 days – and it still is!

This blog may well be coming to an end very shortly.